A special committee of Papa John's board of directors met on Sunday to discuss the recent controversy surrounding founder John Schnatter's use of the N-word. Now the company's board says it has ended Schnatter's role as spokesperson, will remove him from all marketing materials, and evicted him from its headquarters.

Rob Kim via Getty Images Schnatter, who founded Papa John's in 1984, resigned as CEO of his company in January following backlash over his response to the NFL national anthem protests.

Schnatter stepped down as chairman last week after acknowledging that he used the term during a training exercise. However, the announcement of Schnatter's resignation gave the company share price an 11% bump and there are now rumors it could be bought by a larger restaurant conglomerate.

Papa John's founder John Schnatter is pushing back against suggestions he is a racist, claiming that media reports have mischaracterized his use of a slur against black people. In other words, he's going to be more than fine.

Schnatter was already in trouble when he entered the conference call. "I, of course said no - which is a truthful statement as those of you who know me well will attest and of course, if you felt otherwise you would not be sitting on the Papa John board". She also called on the board to fully investigate the matter.

Papa John's also announced that Schnatter will "cease all media appearances, and not make any further statements to the media regarding the company, its business or employees", the company said in a statement.

A spokeswoman for Laundry Service has previously declined to comment on the Schnatter incident and did not immediately respond to a second inquiry on Tuesday.

Schnatter again apologized for using the word, saying: "I don't condone racism in any way. But they actually wanted to get into that vocabulary, and I said absolutely not".